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Friday, July 18, 2014

How to fix bad filament

If you've ever bought filament from a bargain supplier you know you're rolling the dice. And occasionally you get that roll of filament that no matter what you do it's a bad print. You try printing higher temp, lower temp, slower, faster, you build an enclosure, you try a fan, and whatever you try the result is the same. Icky poo. And you can't return it because the fly-by-night supplier has flown. By the time you figure out the problem is the filament they're gone.

Fortunately there is a simple, one step process to fixing your bad filament process.

Step 1 hurts, I know. It hurts to admit you've made a mistake. It hurts to eat that loss. But in the end you will waste less prints and time than if you tried to salvage it.

About Step 2, I'm not getting kick-backs from ToyBuilder Labs. They're not paying me to say this. I'm saying this because when I tried someone else's filament I suffered, but I have never suffered from ToyBuilder Labs. It's a little more than the cheap stuff, but it's better sometimes than the expensive stuff.

But if you still think I'm a schill then I'll give you a second recommendation. Afinia's filament is cheaper, there are some fun novelty colors, but I've had a few problems with it occasionally. But from now until the foreseeable future my filament is only coming from those two places.